In the first part of the series I presented a formula for spiritual health. We need to have a healthy diet and a good balance of exercise and rest. All that together equals as the spiritual immune system. God (the Spiritual Immune System) : Father (Rest) + Son (Nutrition)+ Holy Spirit(Exercise) This second part of the series will be about the Father/Rest in the equation. The third part will be about the Son/Nutrition and the fourth part will be about…
Why do we need to have a spiritual immune system? That’s easy. Life is hard, life is rough, life is difficult, even if we don’t talk about spiritual battles. Our faith is on line every day. In order to be able to feel spiritually well and live our lives according to God’s will we need to have the best spiritual immune system possible! But make no mistake: God is our source of health and healing. Praise the LORD, O my…
(Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885),”Ash Wednesday“) Lent is a blessed time: we can slow down and actively reflect on our spiritual journey. But there’s also this, it’s not too late— God’s personal Message!— “Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!” (Joel 2:12, MSG) Lent is a blessed opportunity: we are called to turn back to God and intertwine faith into our lives. Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God,…
Impossible is nothing to God! Impossible is nothing. Nothing. It is a question of our perspective once again. Do we choose to focus on our problems or lift our gaze up to God? Do we try to fix things on our own or do we invite God Almighty into the middle of our messful lives? We don’t need to fix our lives before we can approach him. God accepts us as we are and delights in helping us out. God…
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12, NIV) We are called to zealous prayer life! Prayer is a gift from God to us. Just think about having a direct prayer line to God Almighty! Pretty awesome!! We are called to be faithful in prayer and to pray without ceasing. God wants to participate in our lives. Through prayer we are able to…
How on earth is is possible to find joy in this broken world? No matter where you watch, left or right, you see terrible hard ships and things gone awry, broken hearts and crushed lives. What to do? How to handle all this pain? How can we go on with living when things are so wrong? One way to force joy into life is trying to eliminate things that hurt and then try to lighten the boredom of that numbness…
Is receiving the grace of Christ an amazing race or amazing grace? It is a relief to know it does not require to be the winner of the amazing race to receive the grace of Christ. There is nothing we can do to earn the grace of Christ. It is the amazing gift from God; it is amazing grace. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when…
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is…
I explained why my blog is called FLOWING FAITH in my previous post Flow, flow flowing faith. What about the rest of the title “Ponderings of an Almond Tree in Bloom”? The quote from “The Fratricides” by Nikos Kazantzakis – “I said to the almond tree: ‘Speak to me of God’ and the almond tree blossomed” – was given to me on my high school graduation day. I’ve always felt that I was an almond tree and my destiny was…
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it…
